Labour's Nick Palmer become first ex-MP to go on the dole

A former Labour MP who lost his seat at the general election has signed on for
unemployment benefit.

Nick Palmer:n He said that wanted to keep his National Insurance contributions continuous as well as seeing for himself how the system works. Photo: UPPA

By John Bingham

10:10AM BST 11 Jun 2010

Nick Palmer, who lost his west Nottingham seat to the Tory Anna Soubry by fewer than 400 votes, told supporters in an email that he had attended an interview at his local Jobcentre.

He said that wanted to keep his National Insurance contributions continuous as well as seeing for himself how the system works.

The ousted MP who speaks six languages, has a PhD in maths and once designed a computer game about the Battle of Britain, admitted that he was curious to see whether he would be “browbeaten into applying for jobs on a building site”.

During his 13 years in Parliament Mr Palmer, 60, served as parliamentary private secretary to several Labour ministers including Margaret Beckett, when she was Environment Secretary.

Although he plans to fight the seat at the next election, he is currently enrolled with several recruitment agencies in search of work.

He told supporters that he had been impressed by staff at the city’s Station Street Jobcentre.

“I signed on at the Jobcentre, partly to keep my NI contributions continuous, but also partly to explore for myself what it's like,” he wrote.

“People (including MPs) have wildly different ideas – some think it's a grim place where applicants are pushed around and ordered to go for unsuitable jobs; some think it's a cushy environment where you just routinely sign on and no real effort is made to get you back to work.

“I think politicians should experience as much as possible directly, so I went through the normal registration process and in due course was invited to interview.

“Would I be nodded through without questions, or browbeaten into applying for jobs on a building site that I wouldn't be able to do?”

Far from browbeating him into accepting inappropriate work, his interviewer arranged a specialist CV review with a recruitment expert and several agencies focused on professional candidates.

He left the interview impressed at how he had been dealt with.

“It's a sensitive situation even for optimistic people like me, and I felt almost like giving him a hug,” he admitted.

But he was less optimistic for the future of the Jobcentre itself.

“I gather from other sources that the office is under new orders: to freeze recruitment, lay off all fixed-term staff and outsource much of their work to private companies,” he wrote.